Hair tends to be excessively dry because of daily shampooing, brushing or heat from a drier in addition to exposure to ultraviolet rays or sun shining. In recent years, it has been common to enjoy changing the appearance of hair such as changing hair color (coloring) and changing hair style (permanent waving) frequently. Repetition of them however damages the hair and increases the friction between the surfaces of individual hairs. This tends to result in the entanglement of hair, deterioration of the hair feel during shampooing or disruption of smooth combing after drying. In addition, since a curl different from the intended one appears at the hair tip because of damages accumulated therein, the hair inevitably goes in various directions. Such a symptom is known as “flyaway hair” or “jumping hair”. This leads to the hair troubles of consumers such as stiffness, unmanageability and difficulty in setting.
In order to improve the hair feel during shampooing and manageability of the hair, a cationic polymer, silicone derivative, oily substance and the like are added to a hair cleansing composition. For example, there is a proposal to incorporate a cationic polymer or silicone in a hair cleansing composition for the purpose of improving the hair feel during shampooing and combing ease of the hair (JP-A-S56-72095). Another approach is addition of an organic acid to a hair cosmetic composition in order to soften the hair, thereby improving its manageability (JP-A-H06-172131). Even if these technologies are applied to the hair damaged by coloring or the like, they cannot bring about satisfactory improvements in both the hair feel during shampooing and effects for alleviating the unwanted curls of the hair tip resulting from the accumulation of damages.
Hydrophobic sulfonic acids such as naphthalenesulfonic acid and benzophenonesulfonic acid have recently been incorporated in hair treatment compositions or curly hair straightening compositions such as hair deforming compositions and are known to give body/strength to the hair (for example, JP-A-H05-43425, JP-A-H05-43426, JP-A-H05-286828, JP-A-H05-286830, JP-A-H08-198732, and JP-A-H08-92043).